Separator



F. M. SCHAEFER March 18, 1930;

SEPARATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 1'7, 1926 TDfTL 01' 1 Jcaej2r F. M. SCHAEFER March 18, 1930.

SEPARATOR Filed Dec. 17 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 18,, 1930 UNITED STATES PATIENT OFFICE FRANK I. sCflAEFEB, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR '10 AMERICAN UTENSIL COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS snrana'ron Application filed December 17, 1926. Serial No. 155,480..

This invention relates to 'a device for separating seeds, pulp and husks of fruit, vegetables and the like from the juice, and for depositing the useful and waste extracted materials in separate receptacles.

It is an object of the invention to provide a device which can be readily installed for domestic use and which lends itself to easy operation by hand.

1 7 Another object of the invention is to provide a device of this character in which the screen or sieve for the discharge of the liquid can readily be removed and cleaned.

Another object of the invention is to facilitate the removal or disassembly of other parts of the mechanism for cleaning purposes. o

'The invention, furthermore, has the object of providing a rotary pressure feed member in cooperation with a casing, screen or the like, whereby upon the rotation of said member in the casing or screen a gradually increasing pressure is applied to the material to facilitate the feed of said material longitudinally of the screen.

With these and numerous other objects in view,-several embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawing and are described in the following specification. c

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the mechanism shown in place on a table and disclosed with a portion of the casing shown broken away to illustrate the interior:

Fig. 2 is a fragmental vertical section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1, some parts being shown in elevation;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section on a slightly larger scale through the main portions of the device shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a transversesection on line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is partly a sectional view and partly an elevation of a modified form of a casing;

Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view on line 6-6 of Fig. 5;

Fig.7 is another detail sectional view of 60 a rotary pressure member and casing, and

material to be separated may be introduced.

formed with a cam head 9, so that upon .rounding the extension 18 of the Fi 8 is an elevation of a modified pressure mem er in a casing shown in section.

The main frame of the machine comprises a bracket 1 carrying a bearing portion 2 in communication with a bowl 3 into which the A plunger 4 movably secured to the top of the bowl 3 serves for forcing fruit and the like yieldingly downward into the portion 2.

The standard or bracket 1 is provided with a lateral projection 5 and with ratchet teeth 6 into engagement with which a tooth of a plate 7 may be forced by means of a handle 8, pivotally secured to the plate 7 and being swinging said handle 8 in one direction, the plate7 is transversely strained relatively to the arm or standard 1 and is caused to firmly engage one of the ratchet teeth 6 of the arm. An upward projection 10 secured to the top side of the plate 7 serves for carrying and universally supporting a pad 11, whereby the entire device may readily be attached to the edge 12 of a table, cabinet or the like, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 4, and may also be detached through a swinging movement of the cam handle 1n an opposite direction from that for securing it to the table. As illustrated in Fig. 4 the top surface of the pad 11 is provided with projections and indentations 14 to provide a surface which by friction maintains the entire device securely 1n position.

The bearing 2 serves for rotatably support ing the rearen'd of a rotary pressure member 15 which as shown in Figures 2 and 3 is of conical or tapering shape formed with a helical rib 16. At the rear this pressure member 15 carries a disc 17 of suflicient diameter to be rotatably supported in the bearing 2, and the member '15 is provided with a rearward extension 18 entering a tubular boss 19 on a closure plate 20; the

projecting end of the cylindrical extension 18 I is squared to receive thereon detachably a crank handle 21, whereby the pressure member 15 may be rotated. A spring 22 surressure member serves for yieldingly forclng the same in a direction toward the small end of said pressure member and thereby causing suitable engagement of the outer periphery of the helical rib 16 with a conical screen or sifting member 23 secured to the flange 24 of the bearing 2.

The attachment of this conical screen 23 having a common longitudinal neutral axis with the rotary pressure member is effected by a disc 25, which is provided with circumferentially extending arcuate slots 27, and surrounds the enlarged or flanged end of the screen 23. Holding screws for securing the screen to the fiange 24 pass through these slots which are surrounded by wedge cam bosses 28, and upon rotating this disc 25 in one direction it will draw the flange 29 of the screen into tight engagement with the flange 24. Corresponding ends of the arcuate slots 27 are provided with circular enlargements 30 of larger diameter than the heads of the holding screws to facilitate the application of the disc 25 to the casing flange 24, the plate or disc 25 being provided with projecting handle portions 32 for conveniently accomplishing this. s

The conical conveying pressure member 15 extends approximately through the full length of the conical screen 23 andthe periphery of its helical rib 16 decreases in radial height in proportion to the taper of the screen, whereby said pressure member is rotatably supported throughout the entire length of the screen 23.

A flaring spout 33 is secured at thereduced end of the conical screen 23 and is adapted to! discharge waste material, such as seeds, husks and pulp into a container P and to prevent said waste material climbing back over the outer surface of the screen and mixing with the useful material. 4

By reference to Fig. 7 it will also be noted that a wall portion 3 of the bearing part 2 forming the lower extension of the bowl 3 is eccentrically arranged with respect to the axis of the rotary pressure member 15, whereby the helical rib 16 projecting from the rotary pressure member; gradually forces the material from the bowl 3 into the lower part of the bearing portion. Owing tothis circular sweeping movement of the outer edge of the helical rib 16 relatively to the eccentric wall 3?, the feed of the material into the circular part of the bearing portion and from there into the conical screen is greatly facilitated.

While the valuable products, namely the juice and body, extracted from the fruit or vegetable during the travel of the same from the large or rear end of the conical screen towards the front or small end, are dis charged thru perforations 33, but the waste or valueless parts, such as seeds, husks and lumps of pulp cannot pass through these perforations 33. A substantially rectangular .box 35 open at it ends, surrounds the screen 23 to receive the discharged juice and is provided with a sight opening 34, and terminates in a tapered chute 37, the lower end of which is open and which delivers useful material separated from the other products into a container also placed on the table 12.

This combined box 35 and chute 37 serves for the directing of the liquid material into the container lV. It is obvious that this box will greatly facilitate the operation of separating one class of extracted products from the other.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figures 5 and 6, a removable conical screen 40 is shown for effecting separation of different sizes of particles from the material. This conical screen is adapted for attachment to a machine inwhich various kinds of fruits or the like are to be treated successively. As shown in Fig. 6, the lower zone of the screen 40 is provided with smaller openings 41 than the opening 42 in the upper zone. Means is provided for preventing the discharge of material through perforations of a certain selected size. If it is desired to prevent the discharge of small seeds and other small particles of less value, the zone containing the larger openings 42 may be covered by a conical sleeve 43 rotatably placed upon the screen 40 and covering approximately one-half of the circumference of the entire length of the screen. As illustrated in Figures 5 and 6, this cover or sleeve, which prevents the discharge of particles over a certain size, is located above the screen, closing thereby the larger size openings 42. \Vhen it is desired to treat any material, the seeds or other waste particles of which are relatively large, it is only necessary to rotate the cover approximately 180, whereupon the rotary member 15 will effect the discharge of the liquid through the larger openings 42 and the waste particles (seeds, husks, etc) will be forced to travel lengthwise of the screen to the end of the same, and drop into the collector P illustrated in F igure' 1, and the box 35 surrounding the screen directs the material passing through the perforations into a container WV.

The modification of the rotary pressure member illustrated in Fig. 8 is similar to the rotary pressure member 15 shown in Fig. 3 with the exception that in place of the helical rib 16 projecting from the conical portion of the member, a series of tufts of bristles 45 in the form of a helical band extends circumferentially, the bristlesbeing sufficiently high to engage the inner wall of the screen. This arrangement has the advantage that the seeds and other granular particles forced from the material will be swept along the inner surface of the screen without running the risk of having any of these seeds ground up or crushed, thereby reducing them to such size that they might be forced through the perforations of the screen.

The screen; illustrated in this embodiment is provided with openings of uniform size and is equipped with an external head or enlargement 46 near its reduced end for retaining useful material lodged on the outer periphery thereof from being advanced towards the end of the screen and discharged into the waste receptacle P.

In the operation of the device the plunger 4 is lifted to permit the introduction of soft material containing more or less granular particles into the bowl 3. The plunger is then lowered, and forces the material downward into the bearing portion 2 which merges with the bowl 3 from where it is gradually gradually forces the soft material into'con 7 tact with the conical screen, thereby comminuting the pulp. The liquid will pass through the openings in the screen while the seeds, husks, pulp are discharged at the reduced end of the screen. The waste particles are caught in one container, while the more valuable product is delivered into a separate container so that not only a comminution of the soft material is effected but also an assortment of thesame into substances of different consistency or into particles of different "sizes is also effected. Upon use of the semi-cylindrical cover lustrated in Figures 6 and 8, and upon use of the screen provided with differential sizes of openings in different longitudinal 'zones of the same, the same screen may be used for treating materials of difierent kinds or for effecting comminution and assortment of the same material into particles of larger or smaller size for separate uses.

When it is desired to clean the screen, it is merely necessary to rotate the holding plate 5 by means of the handle portions 32 until the heads of the screws have reached a re-. duced part of the cams 28 and are in alignment with the enlarged portions 30 of the slot, whereupon the holding plate and subsequently the conical screen may be removed to render cleaning of the interior as well as the out side of the screen easy. At the same time the major portion of the rotary pressure member becomes accessible also for cleaning purposes. I

I claim:

1. In a separator of the class described, a rotary pressure member, a screenhaving perforations of different size arranged in different zones of the screen, and a rotary cover 2. In a separator of the class described, a. rotary pressure member, a screen having different exuding zones and a covering element for selectively covering one of said zones.

3. In a separator of the class described, a feeding hopper having an outlet, a screen having aflange surrounding said outlet, a slotted ring positioned adjacent said flange, headed members extending through said slotted member and into the wall of said inlet, said ring having cam surfaces whereby rotational movement thereof will clamp said screen to said hopper.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature at 10 South La Salle Street, Ch1cago, Illi nois. I

FRANK Ma SCHAEFER.

for said screen for covering any of said zones. 

